


Keep Me Grounded (As I Float Away)

by c0cunt



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Everyone is Dead, Gender-Neutral Pronouns for Pidge | Katie Holt, M/M, Space Battles, explosions and all that other cool jazz, lots of bad things happen, murder! in the cockpit!
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-09-06
Updated: 2016-09-16
Packaged: 2018-08-13 11:23:04
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 3
Words: 5,883
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7975051
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/c0cunt/pseuds/c0cunt
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>They were only supposed to be going on a supply run, but the planet that they had been heading to was surrounded by Galra.  The paladins do what they do best - they form Voltron.  Or, well, they try to...</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa  
> this is actually inspired by some really innocent, good, pure art of Lance by hachidraws. [Follow this link to check it out!](http://hachidraws.tumblr.com/post/149627744582/rain)

    It was supposed to be a supply run, to get new parts that the Castle of Lions needed.  The planet that Coran had been 99% sure would be peaceful, the closest planet to Earth they had ever been to since becoming paladins, had been taken over by the Galra fairly recently.  Also fairly recently, had a large rebellion been put down, and it was surrounded by warships and fighters just _itching_ for battle.  So, of course, the paladins scrambled for their lions (Lance had to throw Hunk his helmet, having almost forgotten it in his room; Shiro had to insist on Pidge slowing down so he could shove their glasses on their face) as quickly as possible.  Keith was in his lion first, and immediately threw himself into battle.

    “Why didn’t they put out a distress signal earlier?”  Pidge wondered as they slithered into the green lion, a chorus of unknowing noises coming from the others.  Coran sprinted from one side of the control room to the other, trying to keep the important things from breaking with the limited supplies he had, as Allura took her position to call up the particle barrier.  There was a fearful half a tick, after all the lions had left the castle, when she wasn’t sure if the barrier would rise, but it stuttered into life.  It wasn’t nearly as strong as it would normally be, but it was enough to protect themselves from the barrage of attacks sent their way immediately.  For now.

    “Well it doesn’t really matter, does it?  We have to help them,” Allura said firmly, even as the castle rocked underneath her.

    “Think we should form Voltron?”  Lance asked nervously, as the sensors only showed more and more Galran drones coming towards them.

    “Probably a good idea,” Shiro said, glancing up at the corner of the black lion’s display to where Allura’s visual was situated.  She nodded, not talking as she concentrated on throwing attack after attack, but that was enough for Shiro to agree more enthusiastically.

    The initial forming of Voltron started as it normally would.  They flew in sync, comfortable and confident that they would be able to find a way out of this that would involve their victory...Until something snagged onto Red, and with a shout from Keith, the lion was dragged surprisingly easily away from the formation.  Which, for obvious reasons, made it impossible to form Voltron.

    “What the quiznak was that?”  Allura barked, at the same time Pidge said “Holy shit, I didn’t think that was possible!”

    “Pidge, language,” Shiro said gently, turning the black lion swiftly to charge in the direction that Red was being dragged.  “Keith, what’s going on?”

    “I-I don’t know?  Red’s not responding to me,”  Keith tried to say calmly.  He felt anything but calm, as he was dragged closer and closer to the Galran fleet behind him, and was the first to notice when the _other_ fleet, directly behind the castle, lowered their cloaking devices, revealing themselves.  “Holy - Allura, behind you!”

    Allura let out a surprised sound as the new fleet appeared on the castle sensors.  She was already shaking her head before Coran shouted over to her:  “Allura, head for an escape pod, I don’t think the castle’s defenses can handle this level of attack!”  They had been outflanked, Allura knew it, but there was absolutely no way she would leave her ship.  Ignoring Coran’s continued insistence, she addressed the paladins as quickly and clearly as possible.

    “Paladins, get your lions as far away from the castle as possible, _right now._  I’m going to activate a sel-ah!”  Before she could finish her sentence, the castle was bombarded, and the particle barrier fell away.  She slammed her fist onto the button, and squeezed her eyes shut, as Coran shouted “Princess!” - then the world disappeared.

    “Allura?  Wha-oh my god,” Lance wheezed out, as he turned Blue around in time to catch the fiery explosion that engulfed the Castle of Lions.  There was a mad scramble, as Galran ships attempted to fly away as quickly as possible, before they too were caught in the explosion.  Lance tried to get Blue to go forward, but the lion did not respond; judging by the shouts and panicked noises coming from the others, their lions weren’t responding either.  Blue sounded like it had powered down, or at least partially, as some of the screens were still functioning, but couldn’t move forward.  The explosion of the castle threw Blue back a bit, until they were drifting placidly next to Hunk.  

    That was when the Galra turned their attacks to the lions; they had been focusing their attention on the castle, and all Lance and the others could possibly do was brace themselves against their piloting seats, and hope their lions came back online.  Keith, with the view he had of the rest of the area, knew that he wasn’t getting attacked nearly as much as the rest of the lions.  There was suddenly complete silence in the world surrounding Red, and Keith lifted his bayard expectantly, before the hull was breached violently.

    “Oh, fuck,” Keith breathed, patting Red’s control panel before standing and preparing to fight.

    “Keith, what’s going on on your end?”  Shiro asked through gritted teeth, as Hunk babbled into their ears about how terrible the situation had turned, and as Lance tried to sooth Hunk with false confidence.  Shiro and Pidge were taking the most hits, with as close as they were to Red, and the majority of the Galran fleet.  Pidge was letting out quiet strings of curses that he’d have to reprimand them about later, as they attempted to dive underneath Green’s console to see what the heck was their lion’s problem.  Over the comms, Keith let out a sharp hiss, and the sound of Galran lasers and small explosions was aired over the paladins.

    “The cockpit is no fucking place for a fight,” Keith snarled through gritted teeth, hiding behind his shield.  He knew it would break soon, being hit so fast with no way to take out his attackers, so instead he babbled.  “Shit, I’m sorry you guys.  This does _not_ look good.  There’s four Galrans in the door, and no doubt there’s more waiting to get in here.  Shield’s gonna break in a second.  Fu-”  There was another explosion inside of Red, and Keith was thrown sideways, his shield breaking upon impact.  Lance was screaming at Keith, mullethead, to get up and keep fighting, that his rival couldn’t go down _that_ easily.  Shiro was trying to remain calm as he tried to get the black lion to move.  Hunk was sniffling quietly, and Pidge was worryingly silent.

    “Shit,” Keith mumbled, sounding dazed.  His helmet had been knocked off his head, and he _knew_ that the rest of the paladins could still probably hear him, and he muttered “Don’t listen…”  A half tick later, the sound of Galrans open firing was heard over the comms, and a choked noise, followed by silence.

    “Keith!”  Shiro said sharply, clutching at the controls in front of him.  They held their breath, waiting for him to say something, _anything,_ until the silence was too much for Lance to handle.

    “Keith?  C’mon buddy, say something!”  He begged, still frantically trying to get Blue to move.  The lion was slowly coming back to life, at least partially, and it jerkily moved closer to Yellow, shooting down some of the Galra ships as they moved, but nothing more.

    “Green’s completely down, I can’t get her to respond at all,” Pidge said, slightly panicked.  A pause, then “I’m gonna escape pod my way out.”

    “Pidge, no, an escape pod like this is basically a death sentence,” Hunk cautioned, and Pidge’s frustrations exploded back.

 “It’s a death sentence staying in a lion that’s not responding!  I’m not going to go down like this, not like Allura and Coran and Kei-”

“Take that back, he isn-”

“Lance, we were all listening to the same communication transmission.  He’s gone, just look at Red.”

     Lance did look at Red then.  The lion had been swarmed by Galra, like ants on an abandoned picnic.  One of its legs appeared to be missing, and Lance’s eyes frantically searched around, before seeing it being dragged away by a Galran ship.  The other limbs of the lion were tied as well, and ready to be dragged to wherever the Galra were taking it.  Lance squeezed his eyes shut, not wanting to see the evidence of his rival - no, his _friend,_ his fellow paladin, _Keith, fucking mullethead, how could he?_ \- being gone.

    “Pidge, don’t get into an escape pod yet, I’m coming closer,” Shiro commanded, shakily.  He sounded worn out, like the universe on his shoulders had gotten four times heavier than it had been a moment ago, and Lance’s heart went out to him.  Shiro had known Keith the best, with his prickly attitude even after all the time they had spent learning about each other in the process of becoming paladins.  The black lion moved slowly, though a little faster than Blue had drifted, and it at least seemed to be on course for Green, which was good.  It seemed like, with each passing second, the lions were getting a little more back online.  Knowing that he was being risky, Lance privately called Hunk, who answered immediately as he swiped more tears from his face.

    “Oh, Hunk…”  Lance started, but didn’t know where to go with his words.  He knew he probably looked like a mess too, tears dribbling down and snot threatening the edge of his nostrils.  Hunk didn’t look as disgusting as Lance did when he cried (something that Lance always felt weirdly jealous of), but he still looked like a wreck, especially as he gripped the controls tight enough to turn his knuckles white.  

    “I know being risky is your thing,” Hunk mumbled, pausing to brace himself for more hits against Yellow.  “But what if Pidge and Shiro need help?”  Lance let out a whining noise as Hunk went to close the video chat.

    “Hey, we’ll see each other soon, right?  We just gotta make sure Shiro and Pidge are okay.  Then when we find a place to land, I’ll give you as many hugs and kisses as it takes to make up for closing this chat quickly, okay?”  Hunk asked soothingly.  Lance felt like a whining baby, as he scrubbed a hand down his face a few times, before nodding.

    “Yeah, I know, I just...I have a really bad feeling…”  He mumbled, not meeting Hunk’s eyes in the video.  “I love you!”  He added quickly, in the same tick that Hunk hung up the video.  Lance hoped that Hunk had heard him, and took a deep breath before refocusing.  Surely there was something that he and Blue could do?

    Tentatively, Lance turned Blue to face away from where Green was placidly floating.  Shiro was still talking soothingly to Pidge over the main comms, reminding them that he was on his way (albeit, slowly).  Frowning, and ignoring Hunk’s quiet concern about what Lance was doing, he mentally said “fuck it”, and punched all the buttons that he knew were for long-range attacks.  Several Galra ships went down, but not in front of him like he thought the attacks were going to go, but back in the direction of Shiro and Pidge.  Which was, apparently, a very good thing, as Shiro breathed a “Good job, Lance” over the comms (which, a compliment from Shiro _still_ made Lance as happy as a puppy).  Before Lance could say anything, there was a yelp from Pidge over the comms, as Green was continuously attacked.

    “Pidge, are you okay?”  Hunk asked, following Lance’s lead in attempting to get Yellow to fight back.  There was a muted whine of pain, followed by a sniffle, that made the three of them freeze, before urging their lions to move faster.  Shiro sounded a bit more panicked as he spoke as soothingly as possible, frantically pressing the buttons Pidge had installed for boosters that didn’t seem to actually be functioning at this point.

    “Fuck this, you’re close enough,”  Pidge growled under their breath, “I’m getting in a goddamn pod.”  Lance started panicking and shouting loudly at Pidge, who let out a huff.  “I modified the pods in the lions so they would be faster and have a better cloaking device than the ones back on the castle.  I don’t have any equipment to see how many Galra are around, but if I can make it to Shiro’s lion, I’ll be way better off than hiding back here next to the goddamn escape pod.”  When no one said anything in response, Pidge took that as all of them resigning themselves to their plan.


	2. Chapter 2

     Not even half a minute after Pidge had announced their plan, the escape pod they used was launched.  Pidge blipped on Lance’s radar for a quarter of a tick, before blinking out, and he held his breath as he watched Galran ships swarm over Green.

     “I’m almost there Shiro,” Pidge breathed, flying more carefully than they had ever before. They did, after all, have to dodge between Galra ships that weren’t aware that Green was no longer piloted.  However, they appeared to have spoken too soon:  A Galran ship, on its way to attack the belly of the green lion, clipped the top of Pidge’s escape pod, knocking the pod off course.

     “Pidge!”  Three voices shouted at the same time, panicked and high pitched, as the escape pod blinked onto their sensors.  Pidge let out loud curse as they flew maneuvers that even Lance had never attempted on the training simulator back at the Garrison.  In the middle of a particularly tricky move, Pidge’s pod was blocked by a slow-moving Galra ship, and they had to pull up violently on their controls.

     “Shir-!”  Pidge started to scream, unable to change the direction of their escape pod, as they crashed directly into the belly of the black lion.  Shiro, in shock, hadn’t braced for impact, as not only did Pidge, but a few dozen Galran ships smashed into the black lion’s underbelly, and he was nearly thrown out of the pilot’s seat.  Maybe he would’ve let himself be thrown out, if the black lion hadn’t jarred completely online from the impacts.  Dazed and horrified, knowing he had no right to command his friends that were left (that he hadn’t allowed to be murdered yet), Shiro’s voice cracked as he tried to get a response from Pidge.

     “P-Pidge?”  A pause.  “Pidge, please...God.  Pidge, don’t do this to me, please.”  He begged of the broken remains that had floated away when the black lion moved.  There was a small speck of green floating among the debris, and Shiro forced himself to keep looking to find Pidge’s body.  Their helmet had been knocked off their head, the speck of green that had garnered his attention in the first place...Shiro tried to keep himself breathing, to not start hyperventilating and crying (he could vaguely hear Lance and Hunk trying to calm themselves over the comms, the static in his brain making it hard to make sense of what they were saying).  Breathing was a good thing, and the black lion seemed to be on auto-attack, drawing Galra ships away from the two remaining paladins, and Shiro clung to a desperate idea.

     “Lance, Hunk.  I’m going to cause a diversion, and I want you two to get as far away from here as possible.”  Shiro’s voice was calm, reasonable, and Lance was almost immediately inclined to do as he commanded.  Hell, he had started to turn Blue away from the chaos, before his brain connected what Shiro was saying.  Hunk was already sputtering protests when Lance chimed in.

“W-we’re a team!”

“Yeah!  We can’t just  _ leave you _ -!”

“There’s some other option, we just haven’t figured it out-.”

“How can you expect us to just-.”

     “Just let me do this, please!”  Shiro said desperately.  His tone shut Lance up, and Hunk kept sniffling, but Shiro took that as his cue to continue talking.  “Please.  Get as far away from here as possible.  I don’t care where, just...Be safe, okay?  I’m going to distract them now.”  There was mostly silence, as Lance and Hunk tried to reign in their sniffling, and Hunk was the first to respond verbally.

     “Damn you, Shiro.  Just this one last time, okay Cap’n?”  His voice was watery, and it sounded close to breaking on Shiro’s name.  Lance let out a whining noise, as if wanting to get Hunk to reconsider.  There just  _ had _ to be a way for the three of them to get out of this situation, they just needed to  _ think _ and the solution would prove itself!

     “Lance, please,”  Shiro said softly, even though he had already started maneuvering the black lion to attract the most attention.  Galran fighters were following his every move, not too interested on the sitting ducks that were the blue and yellow lions, as the black lion lobbed attacks at the fighter ships.  Lance took a deep breath, or as deep as he could around the sobs still stuck in the back of his throat, knowing that there really wasn’t going to be a way to change Shiro’s or Hunk’s mind now.

     “Next time I see you, Shiro, I’m gonna fight you,” He mumbled into the helmet, making both Shiro and Hunk chuckle, as he turned Blue away from Black.  Hunk was already facing away from the black lion, and the two of them waited.  At least, until a rogue shot from a Galran ship cracked into Yellow, and nearly knocked them into Blue.  Hunk let out an annoyed grunt as he righted his lion, but didn’t seem too concerned as the fighters were all drawn away.

     “C’mon Lance,” Hunk murmured eventually, once the radar showed there weren’t any Galra close to them.  Lance sighed loudly as he followed the yellow lion, and even at their slow speed, soon enough the battlezone was out of sight.  They were silent for a while afterward, listening to Shiro’s muttered curses and egging on some of the fighters under his breath.  It gave Lance a little more confidence, and he noticed that sometime between their departure and Shiro calling the Galran “fuzzy purple motherfuckers”, that Hunk had given Blue a set of coordinates.  He was pretty good at coordinates; he had to be, to become a pilot back in the Garrison, but his memory couldn’t pinpoint where exactly these were.  Blue seemed to know, though, and so did Hunk, and Lance trusted both of them completely, so it was fine.  They would be fine for now.

 

* * *

  
  


     Something like hours passed, before Lance sat up straight in his seat, frowning.  He and Hunk had been flying, side by side, for a while, but he hadn’t...Heard anything from Shiro for a while.  Not a curse, not a laugh, not a joke, nothing.  Which...Worried him:  Shiro had kept up a fairly decent running commentary, trying to distract him and Hunk from the fact that they had left Shiro in the middle of a battle.

     “H-hey, Shiro?  You still there buddy?”  Lance asked hesitantly.  Hunk sucked in a noisy breath, as if he had only just realized that Shiro wasn’t there anymore.  They waited what felt like years, but probably was more like ten minutes, in silence, waiting and hoping for Shiro to say something.  Anything would’ve been great.  But no sound came over the comms, aside from his and Hunk’s breathing.  Shiro was gone.

     It felt so wrong to Lance:  The great Takashi Shirogane, the Champion who had survived a year fighting in the Galra’s gladiator ring, who had led the new paladins of Voltron...He had just, blinked out.  Without a word, no grand speeches like he was prone to.  Not even a bit of static was left in his wake, and Lance felt bitter bile start to crawl up his throat.  He shoved his helmet off and turned away from the controls just in time to avoid throwing up on the electronics.  He choked on the bitter taste, eyes stinging as he looked down at the clear puddle of bile and gastric juice that was now probably going to stain Blue’s interior.  The lion let out an understanding growl as Lance mumbled and leaned his head back into the pilot’s seat, closing his eyes.  He groped blindly for his helmet, tuning back into Hunk panicking over the comms to him.

     “Lance?  Oh my god, Lance, are you okay?  Shit, uh, it sounds like you’re puking, which like, I thought that was my thing?  Don’t try to take my thing, babe, there’s a reason why it’s my thing.  But like, are you okay?  Say something for me, will you?  Even if it’s just you shit talking or saying that my ass is great, just, please?”  Hunk was babbling desperately, and Lance could imagine the way that he would be fidgeting.  Lance gently prodded at the controls, before finding the one button he wanted, and started a video call.  Hunk looked just about ready to jump out of the pilot’s seat and come over to Blue when the video connected.

     “Hey,” Lance croaked, making a face as the sound came from his throat, opening his eyes slowly.  The taste in his mouth was just as bad, but Hunk looked  _ so happy _ just to see him that his heart ached.

     “Oh my god, I love you, don’t scare me like that again.”  Hunk breathed, sagging back into his seat.  They both looked rough (flying for who knows how many hours will do that to just about anyone), eyes puffy and noses stinging red, and Lance vaguely wondered why they’d never thought to stock the lions with tissues.  The tear tracks on his face were annoying and itchy now, and judging by how Hunk’s face was twitching, he felt the same probably.

     “Can we keep the video on?”  Lance asked, as he let his eyes close again.  Hunk let out a reassuring, soothing sound, before Lance drifted off into an exhausted nap.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> note: Shiro intentionally turned off his communicators. There was no way he was going to make it out of there alive, and he'd be damned if he let his friends hear him die like they had the others.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> so here's the last bit of this. idk, it's kinda rushed, but i wanted it out here for y'all so i could at least feel like i've done something after the shitfest that was this past week

     Lance was jerked awake as alarms started blaring, and Hunk started cursing.  The alarms weren’t in Blue, though; the inside of Yellow was flashing red, and Hunk looked stressed as he mumbled and looked at sensor readings.

     “Huuunk?  Wassgoinon?”  Lance slurred, rubbing at the tiny trail of drool that had dribbled out of his open mouth while he slept.  Hunk’s eyes flickered up at Lance for a second, but he continued to frown and mumble at his screen.  Soon enough, the red lights flashing around Hunk’s head turned off, and he let out a sigh as he slumped forward against the controls.

     “Don’t worry Lance, just a false alarm,” Hunk said as cheerfully as he could, the edges of his mouth just barely lifting up in a tiny smile.  Something in Lance’s chest ached, as his brain kicked into high gear, wanting to ask Hunk if there was some planet they could pull over at, and just.  He needed to be held, and told everything would be okay, even though it clearly wouldn’t.  Opening his mouth to speak, Lance was cut off before he could even start to form the question on the tip of his tongue.

     “Hey, uh, can you check how much oxygen Blue’s got?  That way we can plan a pit stop to air up at,” Hunk asked casually, and appeared to be pulling up his own readings from Yellow.  Lance frowned for a second, wracking his brain trying to remember how to pull up the oxygenation levels.  Pidge had shown it to him ages ago, he knew, and he pursed his lips as he carefully pressed a few buttons.  He let out a whoop of delight when the oxygenation levels appeared up on the screen, and Hunk smiled gently at him.

     “Uh, Blue says we got like, 64% left here bud,” Lance reported, squinting up percentage on screen.  Well, it was actually 63.9684%, but he might as well round it up, right?  Hunk nodded a few times, digesting the information and running some quick math in his head.

     “Hm.  I don’t think we’ll have to stop.  If we can maintain this speed, we should get to our destination before we gotta stop for oxygen.”  Hunk seemed to hesitate just slightly, before smiling again at Lance, who had already rearranged himself into an ideal sleeping position.  “I guess that means I’m taking first watch,” Hunk mused, and Lance waved a tired hand at him.

     “You’re amazing, Hunk,” He mumbled, and once again, was almost immediately asleep within seconds of closing his eyes.

 

* * *

  
  


    It only felt like minutes had passed before Hunk was calling out to Lance, voice tired and heavy from wanting sleep.  Hunk probably should’ve woken Lance up a long time ago, but he’d just...Really wanted to imprint the memory of Lance sleeping into his brain.  He glanced quickly at the oxygenation levels, that Yellow was displaying very vividly and repeatedly, along with the notice of damaged oxygen tanks...It had dipped below 20% now, and Hunk knew that there was nothing they could really do about it; the area of space they were in didn’t hold many lifeforms, the closest one being the planet they had the coordinates to and were heading there.  He’d run out of oxygen long before they even came close to something recognizable, and Hunk shoved that thought out of his mind as he called to Lance again.  Lance mumbled in his sleep, before shifting around, unwilling to wake up, and Hunk huffed out a laugh.

    “C’mon buddy, I’m tiiired,” Hunk whined, a yawn catching on his words.  Lance let out a grumbling sound, one of his eyes cracking open slightly, before snuggling deeper into the seat.  Obvious Lance body language that meant ‘leave me alone I’m still sleeping’, and Hunk really did feel bad about having to wake him up.  But he was just as bone tired, just as worn out as Lance had been before sleeping, and as much as he would love to just watch his boyfriend sleep the entire flight to Earth...He needed to sleep, too.  He gently coaxed Lance awake by quietly talking about everything they were passing, until Lance let out a grumpy noise and sat up straight.

     “Imawake,” He slurred, shoving his helmet out of the way to rub the crusted gunk stuck around his eyes.  Hunk allowed himself to sag back into his own seat then.

     “Good, I’m dead tired.  The lions know where we’re going, juuuuuuust wake me up if something happens,” Hunk yawned, stretching his arms over his head.  Lance nodded wearily a few times, and promptly zoned out within a tick of Hunk’s eyes closing.  It’s not like he could really help it, though:  As interesting as space is, there was just...A lot of emptiness, and all the time that Lance had spent looking at the stars from the castle’s projections, attempting to find constellations that looked familiar just brought him down.  So instead of watching for familiar constellations, that were beginning to appear, he zoned the fuck out, content to listen to Hunk’s quiet snoring and ignoring Blue’s radar scans.

 

* * *

  
  


     Lance jerked awake with an unholy screech, to the sound of alarms screaming, and Blue being thrown around like a scrap of silk in a heavy duty cycle.  Hunk jerked awake with a shout, somehow appearing more tired than when he had fallen asleep, breathing heavily as if he had been running a mile.  Blue was functioning enough to take down a handful of Galran ships, that had appeared seemingly out of nowhere, as Hunk struggled with Yellow’s controls.

     “Lance!  Weren’t you watching the radar?”  He yelped, eyes flickering over his screens, and biting his lip as he noticed just how low the oxygen tanks had gotten.  Lance let out a noise that roughly translated to the equivalent of ‘I zoned out for like two seconds and now we’re here’ - a noise that he had made frequently back in the Garrison, and Hunk almost wanted to laugh about how it translated so easily still.  It had been  _ ages _ since Lance had made that sound, and it had been almost unthinkable that Lance would be using it in the context of  _ flying in space. _  Hunk shook his head, trying to get himself to focus:  He needed to think of a plan quickly, one that could save at least one of their hides...He had to be truthful about what was going on with Yellow.

     “Okay, so like...I haven’t said anything, but I have like...3% oxygen left,” Hunk said, letting out a nervous laugh that made Lance blink at him uncomprehendingly.  “It just makes sense, man.  You get Blue out of here, and we’ll cover you, okay?”  A few ticks of silence passed, as Lance’s brain connected the dots unwillingly.

     “N-no, Hunk, please!  Just get in a pod, and come here, you don’t gotta-” Lance frantically spluttered.

     “The Galra would see me in a pod within half a tick, Lance.”  Hunk said patiently, as if he weren’t reasoning for his imminent death.  Lance whimpered loudly as Blue took even more damage, already retreating behind Yellow’s more sturdy body.

     “I...I don’t wanna be alone out here…” Lance trailed off, his eyes burning as another wave of tears dripped down his face.  Hunk’s face twisted up painfully, knowing he was abandoning his best friend in every sense of the word.  But, Hunk was willing to risk his life, on the chance that Lance could escape.

     “I’m going to turn off the video,” Hunk eventually said, tossing one more comforting smile at Lance, as red lights flashed around them both.  “And when things get even rougher, I’m going to turn off the comms permanently, okay?  I don’t want you hearing that, alright?”

     Lance wanted to scream about how it  _ wasn’t _ alright, not by a long shot.  But there really wasn’t any options left, were there?  There were at least a dozen Galran ships attempting to outmaneuver the pair, and Blue was almost down for the count.  

     “Fuck you, Hunk,” Lance mumbled wearily as he watched Yellow distract the gathered ships.  Hunk let out a sharp chuckle that sounded more like a gasp than anything else.

     “Love you too,” Hunk smiled softly at Lance on his screen, before quietly turning it off and redirecting his attention to the battle at hand.  He swallowed down his own fear as he was tossed around like a leaf in a storm, watching as Blue flew away.  “Save a kiss for next time you see me?”  He asked ironically (almost hopefully), hissing as the controls were jammed painfully against his chest.  Lance let out a wet laugh, not even piloting anymore as he watched the battle play out.

     “Of course.  Wouldn’t want to run out of kisses just for you,”  Lance tried to joke.  Hunk let out a weak chuckle, and Lance branded the sound to his memory.

 

* * *

  
  


Static and silence rang out through the comms, no matter what channel Lance tried to tune to.  It had been a long time since Hunk had said anything, and even though he  _ knew _ what had happened, Lance still tried in vain to find someone else to connect to.  But, there were no more lions (at least, he assumed - Lance wasn’t sure what the fate of the black and yellow lions were, but Red and Green had been slowly disassembled as he had watched earlier…), so no one to make contact with.

 

The universe had never felt so lonely before.

 

* * *

  
  


     Lance wasn’t sure how long he had been drifting.  Blue had been slowly moving in the direction of the coordinates that Hunk had given him, before...He breathed deeply, and tried to count back from ten to keep from crying again.  He missed his friends.  His team.  Shiro, Pidge, Keith,  _ Hunk especially. _  He even missed Coran’s food disasters, and Allura yelling at them to keep working to become better paladins.  Well, he thought bitterly, at least there wasn’t any more expectations now.  Voltron would never form again.  At least two of the lions had been torn apart in front of him, and the three smartest people in the universe, who probably could’ve replicated a lion, they were gone.

     The sadness was still there, in Lance’s chest, but anger burned more fiercely in his belly.  All the  _ damn _ promises that Hunk had made.  That they’d go home together, and go on pizza dates at the pier.  That they’d go to that tiny grocery store that Hunk could barely fit inside of, with all the displays of fresh ingredients, and pick out the weirdest ones to try and make dinner with.  That Hunk would kiss the living daylights out of him when they landed.  All of them were bullshit, and Lance’s eyes  _ burned _ with the knowledge, but he didn’t have any more tears left.  He was so tired from crying; he felt like a wrung-out washcloth, left hanging outside on the sunniest, hottest day of the year.

     His brain felt slow, up until the point that something crashed into Blue.  Something that shot  _ purple, _ as it streaked past him.  Lance almost felt like crying as he realized that there were Galran ships right on his tail - as if Hunk’s sacrifice had meant nothing.  Blue was too banged up to even attempt to retaliate, spiraling down in a crash landing on the planet’s surface that they had been heading to.  Lance did his best to brace for landing, but he ended up thrown completely out of Blue, splashing painfully onto the planet’s surface.

     He groaned, and got a mouthful of something gross, and he tried to spit it out.  He was so tired, his body aching all over, and he was pretty sure at least a few of his bones were broken.  As if he could get medical attention now.  Hell, he didn’t even know where he was.  But then again, who cared?  Lance blinked into the mud undernea-wait, mud?  On unstable, shaking arms, Lance pushed himself up, and looked down.  Underneath him, fingers squelching unpleasantly, was solid ground, and some sort of...Was that rain?  Was it  _ raining? _  He still didn’t want to move any more; what was the point of moving, when his fellow paladins were gone?  A low, glitching rumble came from Blue, where the lion had crashed, and Lance forced his head up, to look at Blue.

     Its glowing eyes were dimming rapidly, its mouth still open from where it had flung him out.  Lance blinked tears and wa-it was water.  Lance lifted a muddy hand out of the mud, and watched in wonder as the rain, Earth’s rain, fell, and washed his hand clean.  He was...Back on Earth.  It didn’t feel real, but he felt that it must be Earth, and he let out a laugh that was more of a sob as he looked up.  Rain was falling steadily, making it hard for him to keep his eyes open, but he had accepted his fate, as Galran ships slowly descended from the sky.  At least his friends wouldn’t have to wait long for him to join them, Lance mused, letting his eyes fall shut one last time.


End file.
